Isaiah 37
Hezekiah had received dreadful news. There was no way to try to dive out of the way of the oncoming Assyrian foe. An official representative had delivered an insulting and blasphemous message within the hearing of the people. When the news of this came to the king of
Where do you go when you face a problem that is beyond you? You know the right answer, but where do you really go? What if you have turned to God before at a point of desperation and have found that the events that transpired seemed to be a direct rejection of your tears and your begging words? Is there any point in coming to God again at the next desperate moment? Consider two things: 1) The Lord may have answered your earlier petition in a bigger way than you can now see. It is only three days from the cross to the empty tomb. Don’t give up now. Don’t forget about heaven, where so many of the prayers of the people of God have been answered bountifully. These things are stored up for you there and are merely waiting for your arrival at just the right time. 2) Where else will you go today in your need if you do not come to God again in faith. He has the words of life, and has sent His Son for us. Trust Him again, knowing that what may look like the failure of the cross will actually be the blood that cleanses and brings life.
Hezekiah came to God. He prayed His heart out. He acknowledged the terrible day to be a day of rebuke. He sent word to Isaiah the prophet, and asked for Isaiah to come to God in this difficult day and to pray for the remaining people in
Everything that the Rabshakeh was attempting to accomplish in the heart of God’s people can be summed up with these words, “Fear Assyria and her king, and surrender now.” It is interesting then, that when the Word of the Lord comes back to Hezekiah through Isaiah, the first thing that God says is, “Do not be afraid.” Assyria will be defeated soundly, not because of any military might from the people of
The King of Assyria, as God had promised, had to make a hasty retreat, but before He did, He sent another blasphemous and threatening message to Hezekiah. It must have seemed like the prayers of the king and the words of the prophet had failed. Hezekiah again deeply humbled himself before God. He put the matter before the Lord, and he prayed again. He exalted God in the face of the vile insults of the Assyrian ruler. He acknowledged the depth of His military problem, but He insisted that God was not some idol like the gods of the nations whom the Assyrians had defeated. He called out for God’s salvation.
Word again came again from Isaiah. Now God had something to say to the Assyrians that He wanted Hezekiah to hear. These mockers of God were despised by Him, and they would deal now with the power who establishes every throne known to man.
The determination of God was this: Though Sennacherib might boast that he had trapped Hezekiah like a bird a cage the Assyrian king would not enter
What a turnaround! Yet it pales in comparison to the mob of the powerful and the unruly who shouted hundreds of years later, “Crucify Him!” They thought that Jesus was defeated and shamed and destroyed never to say another word to anyone again. Yet in that death it was an evil commander of a demonic legion of rebellious angels who would be publicly humiliated, for the Son of God was atoning for our sins, and He would soon rise from the grave in the greatest vindication known to man. His loud cries and tears were heard from Gethsemane and
posted by Pastor Magee @ 7:00 AM
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